WND EXCLUSIVE

What's America up to now?

Conference features 'Harbinger' author on 'understanding the times'

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.

When Republicans look at America they probably see federal spending run amok and social policies imposed by a president who is not just veering toward socialism but who has reached that point and still is going.

Democrats? They probably see a nation finally being loosed from the restrictions of old-fashioned morality and tradition; a scenario where government finally will be given control of those national issues, like health care, that are so important to individuals.

But what does America look like from a biblical perspective?

“When I look, I see America imploding, the Middle East absolutely on fire and I see the church in a state of apostasy,” Jan Markell, founder of Olive Tree Ministries told WND today.

“We try to look at the issues in the church, geopolitical issues, everything from a biblical perspective,” she said. “Everywhere people are looking for what is stability. The Bible says God is the stability of our times.

“Our effort is to get people to focus on the stability of God in times that are completely unstable.”

The bestseller has been endorsed and praised by born again, Bible-believing ministers, pastors, ministry leaders, Bible teachers, Bible scholars, Christian authors and Christian seminary professors. Its endorsements have crossed both denominational and doctrinal lines within the body, from Baptist to Nazarene, fundamentalist to charismatic.

His message, featured in video on “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” is that God is able to bring judgment and warn a nation of that judgment, and it is His nature to both warn and call back.

Explains Cahn, “He is also sovereign and able to send warning using whatever means, consistent with His nature, that He chooses. This would most certainly include giving warning by using the same patterns of warning and judgment as revealed in the Bible. There is nothing here that is anything less than biblical and nothing other than that which has been attested to in orthodox faith throughout the ages. It is, on the contrary, the argument to the contrary that has no biblical grounding.

Joseph Farah, producer of “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” and founder of WND, noted since the video, “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” was released in March, it has been the bestselling faith movie or TV show in the country.

The movie, like the book, suggests America is being chastened by God for turning away from His ways with striking and eerie parallels to the way ancient Israel was judged.

Both the book and the movie show the uncanny parallels between events prior to the dispersion of Israel and events taking place in the U.S. today. In fact, the events continue to unfold even after the release of the book and movie.

The events have all taken place since Sept. 11, 2001, and they all connect to one obscure verse in the Bible – Isaiah 9:10.

“The ancient vow begins with these words: ‘The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with hewn stone,'” explains Cahn. “The vow declares Israel’s defiance of God, in the face of a devastating strike on the land. The hewn stone, which begins the rebuilding, symbolizes the nation’s intention to come back stronger than before. The book then reveals the parallel to proclamations by Barack Obama in his first State of the Union message, then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle the day after 9/11 to a joint session of Congress and former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards on the third anniversary of 9/11.”

Cahn also reveals in “The Harbinger” and “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” something that readers and viewers universally find astonishing – that New York’s Ground Zero actually represents more than the former financial center of the country. It is the exact place at which America was first consecrated to God in prayer by the country’s new leaders.

“When judgment came to Israel, the calamity returned the people’s attention to the place where the nation had been consecrated to God – the Temple Mount,” says Cahn. “God was calling the nation back to Himself. What about 9/11? Could there be, in the American calamity, as well, a mystery of return? Could there be a prophetic message hidden in the place where it happened? There is a place where America was consecrated to God in prayer. It is also a place linked to a prophetic warning given on that same day – uttered by the nation’s first president – now coming to pass.”

In 1789, newly inaugurated President George Washington gave a prophetic warning at Federal Hall in New York City. He declared that America’s prosperity and protection were dependent upon its adherence to God. Later, the political leaders of the young nation gathered at St. Paul’s Chapel to commit the nation’s future to God’s purposes. That chapel is located at Ground Zero and miraculously survived 9/11 virtually unscathed.

Cahn, pastor of the Jerusalem Center-Beth Israel Congregation in Wayne, N.J., says America is uncannily re-enacting ancient Israel’s behavior prior to its judgment and eventual fall. He found a sympathetic ear for his message in WND founder Farah, who produced “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” as a follow-up to “The Harbinger.”

Markell told WND that Cahn has “tapped into something that urgently is needed by the people.”

She said while there are factions in America today laughing at the idea of repentance – a main thrust of the Harbinger – that’s exactly the message in the Bible.

Also speaking will be Bill Koenig, who writes “Koenig’s Eye View from the White House,” and, according to Markell, “has insights into America that are stunning.”